Alvin Summerfield Tilles 1884 - 1978 Alvin Summerfield Tilles was born January 27, 1894 in Fort Smith, Sebastian Co., Ar. to Samuel & Bertha Jacobs Tilles. Alvin served in the US Army attaining his final rank as Captain serving with the 3 hundres 12th Supply Train, 87th Division and lated in the 95th Imf. of the 95th Division. He mustered out on Deceber 19, 1918. Alvin passed away August 19, 1978 at Fort Smith, Arkansas with his burial being in the Jewish Cemetery there. ++++++++++++++++++++++++>++++++++++++= Centennial History of Arkansas by Dallas Tabor Herndon. ALVIN SUMMERfIELD TILLES. Alert and energetic, constantly studying business methods and acquainting himself with all that is progressive in mercantile circles, Alvin Summerfield Tilles has been called to the responsible position of manager of The Fair Department Store of Fort Smith. He is a native son of the city in which he makes his home, his birth having occurred January 27, 1894. His parents were Sam and Bertha (Jacobs) Tilles, the latter a representative of one of the old pioneer families of the state of Kansas. The father, Sam Tilles, was one of the early merchants of Fort Smith, who founded and owned The Fair and conducted the business successfully for thirty years, his progressive methods making it one of the foremost commercial interests of the city. The boyhood and youth of Alvin S. Tilles were passed in Fort Smith and he acquired here a high school education, while later he continued his studies in the Western Military Academy at Alton, Illinois, from which he was graduated in 1913. This gave him considerable military training and experience which proved of great value to him when four years later he entered the army for service in the World war. He first went to Camp Logan H. Roots near Little Rock, being the first to enlist from Fort Smith. He entered the Officers' Training School and there he was commissioned a second lieutenant. He was afterward promoted to a first lieutenancy and eventually was made captain of infantry forces, being assigned to duty with the Three Hundred and Twelfth Supply Train, Eighty-seventh Division, Camp Pike. He was sent to Camp Dix and later to Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, and was with the Three Hundred and Seventy-ninth Infantry of the Ninety-fifth Division, being mustered out on the 19th of December, 1918. He acted as supply officer and summary court officer at Camp Pike, but much to his regret did not get overseas. With his return to Fort Smith, Mr. Tilles entered the store established by his father and through the intervening period has given his attention to the conduct of the business, being now manager thereof. The store has always been conducted along the most progressive lines. A large stock is carried, attractive, in its arrangement and display and the enterprise and thoroughly reliable business methods of the house are winning a constantly increasing patronage, which makes this one of the leading mercantile concerns of the city. It is dominated by a policy which has its root in the well defined plans and business methods of Alvin S. Tilles, whose progressiveness is constantly reaching out along broadening lines and who at all times holds to the highest standards of commercial activity.